GOP Plays a Mean Saxby

Most of us outside of Georgia think of Saxby Chambliss as the guy who ran the most disgusting senate ad ever (at least until Liddy Dole's "You're an atheist!" spot this year). In 2002, Republican Chambliss attacked Democratic senator Max Cleland, who left three limbs on the battlefield in Vietnam, for lacking "the courage to lead" against the likes of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, whose images play John the Baptist in the ad to a series of photos of Senator Cleland, carefully cropped to hide his heroic injuries.

Because of that spot, most of us view the hungover Georgia election on Dec. 2 through a lens of justice and revenge, just as Bill Clinton did Wednesday, at an Atlanta rally for Jim Martin, Cleland's would-be vindicator. "When I saw someone wanting a Senate seat so bad that he accused Max of endangering the national security of this country..." Clinton said, shaking his head and trailing off, as if there simply were no words to describe Chambliss's perfidy.

That post-9/11 spot was so incendiary among Vietnam vets that even the pre-Bush-hug John McCain denounced it, as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee gleefully reminds us in a Web spot that went up just before McCain campaigned for Chambliss in Georgia last week:

Folks in Georgia, though, are looking at a very different kind of race. First of all, the ad that earned the GOP senator the nickname Saxby Shameless "is not an issue--or at least it is not a subject of talk on the street or in commentary--in Georgia," says University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock. And if the spot helped Chambliss back then, he says, it "was not because Georgians thought Cleland supported Saddam or Osama," but because people in the right-to-work state rejected Cleland's explanation that he opposed the Bush version of the Homeland Security Bill because it was anti-union. Cleland's reasoning, Bullock adds, "was seen by conservatives as but further evidence of the Chambliss claim that Cleland had ceased being a Georgia conservative and had become a national liberal."

Chambliss's problem this year is that many Georgians don't think he's conservative or populist enough, Bullock says, at least in the sense of standing by economically suffering constituents. His vote for the bailout drove some of his supporters to choose the third-party candidate in the general election, which kept Chambliss's margin of victory below 50 percent, triggering this runoff. His bailout blues also inspired this country-western jingle in a DSCC radio spot: "He bailed out all the fat cats up on Wall Street/Supported Bush's economic plan... Now I've had all the Saxby I can stand/Saxby economics won't fill my pickup truck/Won't send my kid to college/Won't catch my mortgage up... Saxby economics, don't trickle down on me."

Finally, because this is a runoff, which all experts say will draw less turnout, it is much more of a base race, with the counterintuitive result that the Republican attack machine has been muted. What Chambliss wants to do is bring out his base without provoking anyone on the other side. While both camps may spend as much or more on TV advertising in this four-week period before the run-off than they did in the months-long general election, the odds that Chambliss would walk on the wild side with another cut-throat ad are long.

You won't hear Saxby repeat the line, "The other folks are voting," as he reminded supporters when local TV news was showing mostly African-Americans lining up at early polling places during the general. Instead, he's running the most generic, time-worn base appeal the GOP has got: taxes. Or, more precisely, taxes and Obama. Saxby, like most Republicans, is still pinching himself over the landslide election of an African-American president: He wants desperately to click the heels of his ruby slippers and go back to Kansas (and what's the matter with that?).

But if a wildly taxin', Joe-the-Plumber-pummelin' Obama didn't work for McCain, why would a tax-happy, Martin-cum-Obama work for Chambliss? (By the way, Sax's tax math is just as distorted as McCain's was: In the '90s, then-state representative Martin voted to raise the state sales tax from 3 cents to 4 cents, which gives you that outrageous-sounding 32 percent raise and which, according to Bullock, "was not very controversial at the time." After all, "three cents had been in effect since the early 1950s.")

Actually, Martin, confident that Obama's winning aura would rub off on him, was the first to bring Obama into a runoff ad. It's a near replica of O's spot that slapped McCain around for insisting that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong," but this one can end with the definite promise that Hope is on the way:

Both men's ads are a little tapioca, pretty much regrinds of the familiar Republican vs. Democrat complaints of the past quarter century. If you want a cockfight with some style, you have to go to third parties. Here's a DSCC spot running in Georgia right now that really throws some sugar on the fire:

Wow. The drama is wham-bam hype, but the ongoing legal battle over the Imperial Sugar tragedy is real (a Chambliss spokeswoman says the senator denies the accusations, and that federal law and Senate rules immunize and even prohibit him from testifying, which is mighty damn convenient--and highly disputed). On Thursday, Chambliss himself exploded, physically blocking a camera when a reporter asked whether the lawsuit was distracting him. Forget the dignity of the Senate: Chambliss is acting like a perp in a shoving match on the courthouse steps. Watch it here.

Never one to bring a knife to a gunfight, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has just received an additional $2 million from the NRC to spend against Martin, has mounted this on its website, probably the closest an '08 Georgian ad has come to the Osama-Cleland spot:

But who believes this bull hockey anymore? They didn't believe it when McCain cain ran a twisted ad that portrayed Obama as favoring sexual abuse of children, either. And isn't the party of Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and the swaddled Senator David Vitter fluttering a little too close to the flame when they feature a girl with a come-hither look like the one in that spot?

Ultimately, though, the ads may not be as important in the Georgia race as time itself. Even in the short period since Obama's election, the economy has only gotten worse and the calls for bailouts more numerous. Georgians like to think of themselves as special--well, according to my Southern husband, they do. He figures they may vote against the national will out of pure stubborness; on the other hand, they also like to say they're too busy to hate. One thing's for sure, with the credit crunch freezing out small businesses and unemployment rapidly heading North, Georgians won't be too busy to vote next month.

UPDATE: Obama has just cut a radio spot for Martin, urging voters "to turn out one more time and help elect Jim Martin." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says it's likely that Obama will follow up with a TV spot soon. The big question is still, Will PEBO advertize in person?

UPDATE II: Uh, I meant PEBO. Corrected above.

Comments (70)

1. The Chambliss adds are annoying as hell. I was trying to watch the GT / Miami game last night, and saw countless GOP commercials saying that Jim Martin is going to raise our taxes and that he doesn't hold the values of Georgian people.

   I take that to mean screw everyone but the rich since that is evidently Chambliss's platform. Out here in Georgia there appears to be two political parties. One is the extreme right wing neocons nazis, and then there is the right wing rich folks who don't want to pay taxes.

   There are worse things than paying taxes...losing your job, home, savings, pension, schools, and any chance of retirement.

   One day, the GOP thugs will realize that to have a huge DOD, have multiple wars and pay private companies billions of dollars to squander as they see fit, requires taxes. Instead of bitching about taxes, they should be more worried about the cronyism, fraud and abuse their own people have committed on the American people in general so that a handful can buy that extra yacht and install millions more in the tax free offshore accounts.

   Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 07:10am

2. Martin should play up how regardless, Chambliss will be part of a small minority in the Senate....and maybe hint that that means "Georgia will get nothing"????

   The man who smeared Max Cleland deserves no less.

   Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 07:21am

3. I just feel sorry for Georgians. They have to go through another 4 weeks of campaign BS.

   Is there any con out there that is willing to answer this question:

   What is in the US Constitution that says that the President or any member of congress or any judge should set "values" or "morals". I keep hearing these lines from so called "conservatives", but I cannot find anything in our law structure that speaks to this major platform of theirs. I know these folks like to talk about "constructionism" and adherence to the constitution, states rights etc but then they throw in this stuff about "values . How do they square this in their minds?

   Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 10:19am

4. at work where youtube is blocked...whats the numbers looking like?

   saxby shameless? huh huh...

   well...i still suffer under dim jemint...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 10:27am

5. A slight side note. I read too many articles and hear too many TV pundits claiming that "the people have rejected" such-and-such. It can't be ignored that in most cases it is just over half of all voters who "reject" something through their votes. This means that the most diabolical attack ad still doesn't seem to bother a fair -- make that "large" -- amount of the populace. It's like suggesting there are no more racists, because Barack Obama won the national election, or that people oppose corruption, although the Alaska Senate race came down to the wire.

   Posted by ElSquisho at 11/21/2008 @ 10:30am

6. Once again a repub wants to be able to keep people indefinitely with out charges, is willing to torture, keep a gulag open in Cuba, but will not show up to answer questions in a deposition.

   If he has nothing to hide.....

   Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 10:36am

7. Posted by ElSquisho at 11/21/2008 @ 10:30am

   great nic!

   I think this can be explained by saying that most people vote against one candidate, rather than FOR the other. Yet another problem with a duoploy.

   Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 10:41am

8. What/who is "PEGO"?

   It is either a parish in Portugal or slang for a penis. Why would a Portuguese penile province show up in the Peach State?

   Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 10:44am

9. Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 10:44am | ignore this person | warn this person

   you know, there's actually a municipality along the south carolina coast called "penistown"...

   nah - i just made that one up...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 10:46am

10. Oh, those clever headline writers at The Nation.

    Posted by jackwells at 11/21/2008 @ 10:50am

11. you know, there's actually a municipality along the south carolina coast called "penistown"... nah - i just made that one up... Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 10:46am

    Sounds like a cock and bull story to me.

    Posted by jackwells at 11/21/2008 @ 10:52am

12. Sounds like a cock and bull story to me.

    Posted by jackwells at 11/21/2008 @ 10:52am | ignore this person | warn this person

    we university of south carolina fans love our cocks!!!

    as the bumper stickers say - "nobody can lick our cocks"...

    i think the school's nickname is the main reason so many obnoxious yankees come down here to attend...they watched an sc football or basketball game and heard thousands of garnet and black dressed gamecock fans screaming in unison "go cocks!" and figgered this might be a fun place to get them an ejumagoshdarnedcayshun....

    lol...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 10:58am

13. Sorry to hear that nobody can do that ibble. You guys are missing out on some fun. Of course, those "values" are un-American and should be re-outlawed!

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:02am

14. Did you read about the kid born with no eyelids? The doctors found that the best skin to use for a graft in the eye is that from the penis.

    What does that make the child....?

    (are we devolving too fast for daytime blogging?)

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:04am

15. " might be a fun place to get them an ejumagoshdarnedcayshun...."

    When I attended Tenn Tech I learned about the "War of Northern Aggression". One of the first instances of black-is-white, up-is-down I encountered while immersing myself in Southern culture.

    so yes, Ibble, I was an "obnoxious yankee". Still am, for that matter.

    (BTW, our "football" team was 0-12 that year, not as bad as Michigan this year, but the coach wasn't paid millions to fold up the program)

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:11am

16. Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:11am | ignore this person | warn this person

    i always liked the obnoxious yankees for my part. honest...

    it WAS funny when they first got here and i would pass by them and smile and say "hi!"...they would clutch their bookbags and stare at me like i was about to mug them...lol...at least the new jersey/new york yanks...lol...

    one good friend, a self proclaimed new jersey jewboy, loved it here. said "down here people hate the catholics and think us jews are just some wierd protestant sect. i love it!"

    he also introduced me to the concept of the "new jersey redneck"...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 11:16am

17. PEGO

    president elect...garack? obama...?????

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 11:23am

18. Garrak was a Chancellor/tailor/spy.

    Is that who I voted for? Damn, I thought I voted for Hussein.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:39am

19. Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:39am

    That's a new one. A "Deep Space Nine" reference on "TN".

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 11:44am

20. one good friend, a self proclaimed new jersey jewboy, loved it here. said "down here people hate the catholics and think us jews are just some wierd protestant sect. i love it!"

    he also introduced me to the concept of the "new jersey redneck"...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 11:16am

    I guess I'm a yankee wannabee since I grew up in the part of the country that wasn't part of the country during the civil war.

    But, being an ex-Catholic myself, I've been asked here in Georgia if that is some kind of religious type cult. The Southern Baptists really do think Jazis spoke American and would have fair skin, blue eyes and all that.

    Also, their loyalty to Israel stems from their preachers telling them that if they don't side with Israel on everything, they are turning their backs on God. In denying God in this way, they are to be condemned to eternity watching public television and listening to NPR, having to eat un-American food and having to learn to speak Spanish (sorry Mexican) in hell, next to all of the democrat librols. Oh, and there isn't any country music in hell either, so they'd be forced to listen to other types of music....OMG!!!

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:12pm

21. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:12pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    what i find funny are the non southerner transplants who become more redneck than redneck after a few years down here.

    hooooweeee!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 12:27pm

22. what i find funny are the non southerner transplants who become more redneck than redneck after a few years down here.

    hooooweeee!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 12:27pm

    Yep. Those and the ones who mysteriously develop a southern drawl over night. I've been out here for 7 years now, and still no drawl....so just for the record, the transplants from the north drawling are completely faking it.

    It is kind of funny though that my daughters have picked up the drawl from school. It's not bad, but I'll notice a word here or there with a good ole twang to it.

    My dad was from the south, so I spent a long time as a kid laughing at his expense. The guy couldn't say light bulb to save his life. He couldn't say God dammit. And most words over 2 or 3 syllables were completely destroyed by the man. When he'd get mad at me or my brothers or sister and start cussing at us, we'd usually end up howling at him which just pissed him off all the more. We didn't fare out too well from that point on, but you can't stop from laughing at destroyed English like that.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:38pm

23. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:43pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    friday, reverend...bored AND burned out...

    ---------------------------------------

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:38pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    hee hee...yeah...

    strangely enough both my brother and i lost our southern accents without really leaving ol' dixie. i've had people peg me as being anywhere from california to pennsylvania...

    i think with me i lost the accent when i got my first tape recorder, talked into it, played it back and heard a dead ringer for muskrat from the old deputy dog toons...

    never conciously tried to drop the accent, but somehow it happened.

    your example reminds me of a poser grad student in college who studied in england for a year and came back with a limey accent he couldn't shake...amazing!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 12:52pm

24. You guys must really be bored! Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:43pm

    Just waiting for you to answer a question.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 1:20pm

25. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 12:43pm

    Yeah....how about a round of ..

    "Mary Ann vs Ginger"?

    or what would be the equivalent for you younger guys (<35 y.o.)?

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 1:38pm

26. Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 12:52pm |

    I still use "All Ya'll" and "fixin' to...". I love "I'm fixin to git ready". It drives my wife nuts. I have yet to find a term that works as well as "ya'll". "Youse guys" doesn't seem to have the same panache'.

    But then using "youse guys" and panache' in the same sentence would probably have me fixin to git my butt whupped.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 1:45pm

27. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 1:39pm |

    2 actually...

    What is in the US Constitution that says that the President or any member of congress or any judge should set "values" or "morals"

    and

    What does that make the child....?Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 11:04am

    ---- Mary Ann.

    and

    Genie

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 1:49pm

28. Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 1:45pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    y'all is actually a good thing. almost all languages have a specific pronoun for the second person plural but english, so imo thats ok, a logical attempt to specify the number referred to when second person is addressed...or something like that...

    i admit that some expressions and twangs down here do make my skin crawl, and whereas outsider males seem to melt at the southern female accent, i hear it like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard...a siren song that lures poor non southern males like my dear late dad down here, sucking them into this southern gothic insanity...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 1:58pm

29. Definitely Mary Ann

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 1:41pm

    Liv, I agree with your choice, but you do realize that the actress playing Mary Ann was busted for possesion of the wacky weed?! The twisted morals of that woman!!

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:15pm

30. i hear it like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard...Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 1:58pm

    My favorite it the drawlers say thank-you. It comes out sounding like thangk-uewe. The first time I heard that was in Alabama from a woman at a mom / pop gas station. I think she might have had 3 teeth in her head and that was all I could understand of what she said after paying for gas.

    Getting back into the U-Haul truck I asked my brother if he understood what the woman said, and he said, hell, I don't know, I thought you knew what she was saying. For all either of us know, she was probably telling us to get our Yankee asses out of bama and be on our way....then she said...thangk-eewyuuuuu.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:25pm

31. Would like to see more of that southern cogent realism channeled into some good politics. There's a lake on the Arkansas-Mississippi border where ducks on the flyway all come together. Four million ducks were counted on Wilcox Lake in 1932. A lake of 120 acres. Loving the land is what counts.

    Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 2:38pm

32. Four million ducks were counted on Wilcox Lake in 1932. A lake of 120 acres. Loving the land is what counts.

    Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 2:38pm

    We'd better keep Cheney away from there!!

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:45pm

33. We'd better keep Cheney away from there!!

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:45pm

    Sorry, I didn't finish that. We'd better keep Cheney away from there!! He'd kill all the ducks and put in oil rigs.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:46pm

34. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:25pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    the south IS the land of the dipthong...

    ie: pen or pin = peeeyon

    shit = sheeeuht

    of course regional dialects vary greatly. i can't understand gullah and some deep country accents. but then some of those folks (non gullah) might just have speech impediments aggravated by borderline retardation and heavy, multiintergenerational inbreeding...

    lol - just pickin'...sorta...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 2:48pm

35. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:45pm

    Really. If they're aren't any people he'll take out the ducks!

    Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 2:48pm

36. I live in West Virginia - not really a southern area if you want to be technical , but the mentality is similar to the "real" south. I'm a Pennsylvania transplant, so before I moved here, I thought the West Virginia accent was southern. The people here are adamant that it is not.

    I actually find the cadence of the local accent to be lovely. Some of the grammar constructions are strange, although I've gotten so used to them after 27 years, I sometimes forget how odd they really are. The first time I heard someone say, "Grandma was wanting to go to the store yesterday" I did a double take. No one in Eastern PA says they are "fixing" dinner or sandwiches (as if they are broken). There we "make" dinner.

    People really do say "git 'er done." Airya means "how are you, " and "I don't care to" means "I don't mind doing it."

    None of this has anything to do with Saxby, but it was such a great conversation, I decided to join. Thanks, guys.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 11/21/2008 @ 2:49pm

37. Posted by LeeAnnG at 11/21/2008 @ 2:49pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    mighty obliged.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 2:53pm

38. None of this has anything to do with Saxby, but it was such a great conversation, I decided to join. Thanks, guys.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 11/21/2008 @ 2:49pm

    Awwwight...that's all-right. Ya'll can join in any ole time Ms LeeAnn.

    Here's another one for you. How about I'm fixin to go on down to the store.

    Really. If they're aren't any people he'll take out the ducks!

    Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 2:48pm

    Hey,he took out his friends face for being in the way...why would he treat ducks any better?

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 2:57pm

39. Georgia, WV and SC...

    Do you have "pop", "soda" or is everything a "coke"?

    My experience is north is pop. TN everything was a "coke", NC seemed to go for "soda", or in the deep western NC "sodee" . I forgot what I called it in Charlottesville.

    And hey, let's not be sexist. Let's let the ladies play..

    Gilligan or the Captain?

    Woodyee is probably solid vote for Mr. Howell.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:17pm

40. Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:17pm

    or "soft drink".

    Actually should open up the debate to ANY "hot TV babe of the 60s"...

    and include Julie Newmar as "Catwoman".....grrrrrrrrr!

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 3:20pm

41. Ya'll really disappoint me today.

    "Did you read about the kid born with no eyelids? The doctors found that the best skin to use for a graft in the eye is that from the penis.

    What does that make the child....?"

    Of course the lil fella would be.... cockeyed. (rimshot please frosty...)

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:21pm

42. Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 3:20pm

    ain't no doubt... Sally Field. (Homer Simpson uuuuhhhhh, droooooll)

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:24pm

43. Grew up in Arizona. Once dad came home from work chuckling. He'd just bought a used car & one of his ride sharers had asked him a question. "Nice car you got there, but will she dig?" For a minute dad drew a blank. And then Ketcherside smiles & says, "burn rubber, man." Ketcherside was from Louisiana. The old man kept repeating for a couple days, will she dig, will she dig?

    Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 3:25pm

44. And to be fair, LUVVY is not opposed to personal use of MaryJane. He would be opposed to your personal use of Mary Ann, though. Family Values type stuff involved there. Killing, cool. Sex, not so much.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:27pm

45. or "soft drink".

    Kool-aid seems to be universal.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:31pm

46. Back on '19 and 85 I was driving my 280Z around the mountains of Tennessee and got my yankee ass good and lost. I stopped at a classic scene of old man on the porch of a run down log home. I asked him how to get back to Cookeville. No lie, he actually said "Well...you cain't git there from here. First ye got to go...".

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:37pm

47. BTW, if you want some Southernisms...

    "They Law!" for "Oh, Lord" from my grandmother.

    or

    "hod-a-mighty" for "God Almighty"

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 3:44pm

48. Of course the lil fella would be.... cockeyed. (rimshot please frosty...)

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/21/2008 @ 3:21pm

    Rimshot?! That's an airball!! Crab....actually, it is pretty funny.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 4:06pm

49. Posted by Sorelish at 11/21/2008 @ 3:25pm

    That reminds me of another one my dad couldn't say, nor any of the folks down in here in Geogia. The old man used to work at a gas station back in the day, and a guy pulls in and my dad asks him if he wants his ole checked. The guy looks at him and say, What? My dad goes, check your ole...the guy replies, I don't have any holes in my car. My dad is pissed by then and grabs a can of oil and points at it and says, OLE. The guy laughs, pays for his gas and drives away laughing.

    The any beverage is a coke down here. Coke's headquarters are in the ATL.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 4:12pm

50. and include Julie Newmar as "Catwoman".....grrrrrrrrr!

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 3:20pm

    Hey, what about all the babes in those short skirts and boot on star trek. Kirk, Scotty and McCoy pretty much nailed all of the female population on the enterprise not to mention half the alien population in the universe.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/21/2008 @ 4:15pm

51. Ginger.

    Posted by Hman23 at 11/21/2008 @ 5:48pm

52. heehee...this thread never recovered!

    raquel welch...mmmm...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 6:07pm

53. Murder, theft, child abuse as examples are all moral values that a society has determined essential to our liberty. Should we adopt an absolute anarchist view to morality and values? Should each person determine their values and morals? If so, who determines which prevails when those values conflict? Just curious. Posted by lvliberty1 at 11/21/2008 @ 4:55pm

    No. You are creating an overly generalist argument. murder, theft and child abuse take liberties away from other citizens. Therefore they are not allowed. Abortion or Gay Marriage is not removing rights from other citizens. A fetus is not a citizen and there is debate about whether they are alive or not and what constitutes life.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 11/21/2008 @ 8:06pm

54. Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/21/2008 @ 8:35pm

55. ...or Serena.

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/21/2008 @ 8:36pm

56. That's a new one. A "Deep Space Nine" reference on "TN".

    Posted by Mask at 11/21/2008 @ 11:44am

    "It's Garak. Just plain simple Garak."

    Posted by yutsano at 11/21/2008 @ 11:15pm

57. I only recently crossed the Mason-Dixon line. I learned in Tennessee that it is polite and pleasant to say Sir and Ma'am or even Miss, and that nominal courtesy is the fabric of social harmony, and that a beignet is a delicious follow-up to excellent barbecue, and the southern equivalent to the familiar northern historical roadside markers (Geo. Washington slept here, etc...) were, like, Hospital at UVA accepted first wounded troops of the War... I would never pretend to be "of the south," but I could spend the rest of my life learning from same

    Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 11/22/2008 @ 01:48am

58. LUV, but when speaking of these "values" you and I both know they are not talking about murder and theft. They are talking about sex, who you have it with, where you have it and what happens after. To a lesser extent they are talking about the raising of children . what does a congress critter have to do with how someone raises children or who they have sex with?

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/22/2008 @ 08:59am

59. See what I mean, 4 more weeks of BS

    FACTCHECK:

    Summary

    Georgia voters are being hit with misleading ads from both sides as Republican Sen. Chambliss battles Democratic challenger Martin in a Dec. 2 run-off election.

    Chambliss claims in an ad that Martin would work to raise taxes on "nearly every small business in Georgia." In fact, only around 2.4 percent of small businesses nationally earn enough to be affected by the tax plan Martin favors.

    Chambliss also says Martin "refused to return $100 million of surplus taxes" to Georgians. That's false. Martin voted in favor of the tax relief bill in question.

    A Martin ad claims Chambliss "opposes a middle-class tax cut." In fact, he supported cuts for middle-income taxpayers. What Chambliss voted against was an amendment that also would have increased taxes on corporations and others.

    In one exchange, Chambliss accuses Martin of supporting the largest tax increase in state history, while Martin says he supported the largest middle-class tax cut in state history. It turns out both are right, as we explain fully in our Analysis section.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/22/2008 @ 09:00am

60. ibb, I think you started something that got kind of out of control. Good fun on a slow news day.

    As for the Southern thing: lawd a massey: Lord Have Mercy. I've heard this mostly among Southern blacks.

    Posted by jackwells at 11/22/2008 @ 8:18pm

61. *As for the Southern thing: lawd a massey: Lord Have Mercy. I've heard this mostly among Southern blacks.

    Posted by jackwells at 11/22/2008 @ 8:18pm*

    It's late in the thread, and I know I've mentioned it before, but it keeps coming up as germane. I learned to talk in South Carolina (I live in WA now) and never lost my twang. One of my supervisors is British (fron north London). Listening to the two of us have a conversation and comprehending the two of us is quite the challenge. Or my co-workers think it's entertaining, one of the two. And y'all nailed the Southern speak quite well.

    Posted by yutsano at 11/22/2008 @ 10:33pm

62. I almost forgot my favorite southernism. A chest-of-drawers is called chester drawers.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/24/2008 @ 07:26am

63. Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/24/2008 @ 07:26am

    I reken' so... Ain't that where youns' keeps yer drawers?

    Posted by Malcontent at 11/24/2008 @ 1:44pm

64. I almost forgot my favorite southernism. A chest-of-drawers is called chester drawers.

    Posted by Wolfgang1 at 11/24/2008 @ 07:26am

    You live in GA, Wolfgang? What part? Anyway, I'm so tired of these damn ads. I'll never get over the way Saxby chambliss did Max Cleland. Totally despicable. The man lost three out of four limbs but he gets an unpatriotic label. Reprehensible to say the least. One ad is claiming that Martin is on "their side" and not "our side". WTF does that mean? Exactly whose side are youy talking about Saxby. Last night, talking with my mother, she told me how Saxby has the best golf handicap in the Senate. In fact Bush mentioned it right before a press conference. He said that Saxby told him if they could hurry it up, he could still get in a round of golf. I guess he's like Einsenhower but without the military career. speaking of GA Tech, I'm going to a bball game tonight. I'll be thinking of you, Wolfgang. By the way, Miami got their assess handed to them. Have a good one, everybody.

    Posted by k330k at 11/25/2008 @ 3:09pm

65. The ads run by the GOP sort of tell all us in the rest of the country what appeals to Christian's!!! They seem to go for the more vile instincts in human nature! Only leaving the rest of us to wonder how much religion they really have??????

    Posted by ganddw42 at 11/26/2008 @ 08:43am

66. shit = sheeeuht Posted by ibbleblibble at 11/21/2008 @ 2:48pm

    That's how I say it. Also, as somebody wrote, there is no substitute for ya'll. One of the reasons I'd never live up north past Virginia id it's too damn cold and there's such a lack of hospitality. Thay look at you crazy if you say "good morning". That was very weird when I visited Rochester, NY. Plus I can't live anywhere where the snow gets taller than a toddler.

    Posted by k330k at 11/26/2008 @ 11:42am

67. I am floored. Leslie Savan has written a fantastic article that is completely factual.

    When I say the title a few days ago, I thought to myself that I just don't have the energy to correct another dishonest article from a Nation contributor claiming Chamblis questioned Cleland's patriotism. He didn't, and Ms. Savan confirms that.

    Bravo! You are a credit to journalistic ingerity.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 11/26/2008 @ 1:12pm

68. Totally despicable. The man lost three out of four limbs but he gets an unpatriotic label.

    Posted by k330k at 11/25/2008 @ 3:09pm

    Re-read the article.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 11/26/2008 @ 1:15pm

69. Re-read the article.

    Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 11/26/2008 @ 1:15pm

    I re-read the article. Most of the voters in GA that I know, because I am a citizen of GA, saw those ads as attacking Cleland's patriotism. This was also during the time when anything in opposition to anything dealing with national security was portrayed as unpatriotic. I understand the article clearly. I'm just expressing how I felt after seeing those ads scroll across my tv screen. Either way, Chambliss still gets Georgia's asshole award.

    Posted by k330k at 11/26/2008 @ 8:04pm

70. I know Obama has much on his platter but why can't he campagin in Ga at least once before the election. Send some of that money Martin's way. Damn.

    (For what it's worth "you all" is abbreviated "y'all" not ya'll.)

    Posted by bleedingheart at 11/26/2008 @ 9:01pm